Bartram's Trail

In July 1775, William Bartram, America’s first great naturalist, passed through northwest Butler County on his exploration trip to Mobile, following ancient Indian trading paths for approximately 30 miles through what was then British territory on the eve of the American Revolution. He observed the “limestone rocks” and “banks of various kinds of sea shells” left by oceans that had covered this area millions of years earlier, and he noted a “very remarkable grove of Dogwood trees...which continued nine or ten miles unalterable except here and there a towering Magnolia grandiflora.” A few decades later, his route became part of the Federal Road, which led thousands of settlers into the newly created Butler County and the state of Alabama.

Greenville, Alabama · United States